Yes, they are affected, and it is very interesting! There are things that are problematic in one case but not in the other - the most obvious and often addressed are pregnancy in one case and homophobia in the other.
I found female characters different fpr a long time mostly because I had this not-quite-conscious idea that 'female' must be something special, and this something I don't get. It took me a long time to understand that female characters are as different and unique as male, and this special thing does not exist.
I plan to write femslash to have an experience in writing about two women and their dynamics! For now, it's not even a draft but already feels fascinating.